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| Subject: My point entirely! | |
Author: Ed Harris (London) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 16:50:28 11/14/04 Sun In reply to: Trixta (UK) 's message, "I think not" on 15:16:37 11/14/04 Sun I don't know about Maggie, but generally you have taken my point: sincerity isn't always everything. Would you prefer Tony Blair or Adolf Hitler? Tony, of course, in spite of the fact that he is as slippery as a well-oiled eel and Adolf was deadly sincere. This reminds me of a famous survey which was recently undertaken in France to investigate what qualities voters looked for in politicians, and what sort of politicians would be elected if these criteria were allowed to determine the shape of the political nation. The participants were given brief descriptions of three politicians and asked for whom they would vote. The first was a short-tempered man, born into fabulous wealth and privilege. At university he is said to have smoked opium, and in his later life he drank half a bottle of whisky every night, stayed up until the early hours and was rarely awake before Mid-day. The second was a habitual womaniser, also from an old, moneyed family. He used a sarcastic and flippant sense of humour to evade awkward questions. He often withheld information from his government and his chiefs-of-staff to the benefit of his own strategy and to prove himself right, and took the attitude that a political leader’s job was to direct the nation rather than serve it. The third was from humble origins. He entered politics after fighting for his country in the Great War. He got up early every day, took his job seriously, and was very earnest in his opinions. He seldom drank, had been a vegetarian, was unmarried, and throughout his life aspired to be an artist. The participants of the survey overwhelmingly responded in favour of the third candidate. The other two received hardly a single vote. In the feedback from the poll, the pollsters revealed that the descriptions were of real people. The first was Sir Winston Churchill. The second was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The third was Adolf Hitler. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |